There is a term for bailing out of the mainstream of society that I blogged about in 2008 called “Going John Galt” or “going Galt” for short. Have you ever read Atlas Shrugged? If not, do so. If you have read the book, you know where I am going with this. In Ayn Rand’s book, the basic theme is that John Galt and his allies take actions that include withdrawing their talents and “stopping the motor of the world” while leading the “strikers” (those who refused to be exploited) against the “looters” (the exploiters, backed by the government). One interesting fact about Atlas Shrugged is that the original title was The Strike, but Rand changed it at her husband’s suggestion. The original title of Rand’s book seems fitting for what is happening with today’s twenty-first-century man.

In some sense, men today feel very much like Rand’s characters in Atlas Shrugged, knowing that they can be exploited for their sense of duty, production and just for being male at any time. The state transfers men’s production to women and children through child support, alimony, divorce laws, and government entitlements that are mainly for women, such as WIC (grants to states for women, infants and children) or welfare payments to single mothers. It is not only in family relationships that men are screwed, but also in many areas of modern society. Men are portrayed as the bad guys, ready to rape, pillage, beat or abuse women and children at the drop of a hat. From rape laws that protect women but not the men they may accuse falsely to the lack of due process in sexual harassment cases on college campuses to airlines that will not allow men (possible perverts!) to sit next to a child, our society is at war with men and men know it full well.

In fact, men have known that a backlash against them has been happening for decades, so why is it taking so long for men to fight back? Psychologist Warren Farrell, in his prophetic book The Myth of Male Power, written in 1993, talks about “the men’s movement as an evolutionary shift” and says the movement will be “the most incremental of movements” because it is “hard to confront the feelings we’ve learned to repress and hard to confront the women we’ve learned to protect.” Farrell believes that the greatest challenge of the men’s movement will be “getting men to ask for help for themselves. Men were always able to ask for help on behalf of others—for a congregation, their wives, children, or a cause—but not for themselves.”

If that’s changing, then the contributions that Helen has made, first at her long-running blog and now in Men on Strike, have played a large part in, as the left likes to say about its own pet causes, “increasing awareness.”

During our 27-minute long interview, Helen will discuss:

● Why “Enslavement used to be based on race, [but] now it’s based on gender.”

● Why men dominate the number of suicides reported each year.

● What are some of the ways that college is stacked against men?

● How the increasing popularity of the “man cave” is a bad sign for men.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(27 minutes long; 25MB file size. Want to download instead of streaming? Right click here to download this interview to your hard drive. Or right click here to download the 4.68MB lo-fi edition.)

If the above Flash audio player is not be compatible with your browser, click on the YouTube player below, or click here to be taken directly to YouTube, for an audio-only YouTube clip. Between one of those versions, you should find a format that plays on your system.

Transcript of our interview begins on the following page; for our many previous podcasts, start here and keep scrolling.

I would have to agree with Real Deal. Have you read any text books lately? Most if not all are now written by raging leftists who can barely contain their hatred of the Founding Fathers, at least in the humanities and social sciences. History textbooks are one big overview of all the sins of the white, male, Christian leaders, and a favorable presentation of those who were their "victims". The authors do not even attempt to hide their extreme bias.

The ironic thing is that the white male and his Western Culture, warts and all, has done more to advance the cause of individual liberty and equality than any other groups in the history of man kind. Now he's the the bad guy. Look around ladies, there is no other culture where women are men's equals. Islamic? Fat chance. Asian? Only where Western influence has taken root. African? Nope. South American? Again Western cultural influence.

White male children are conditioned to hate themselves in our public schools through a skewed cirruculum, half truths, and outright lies. They are further attacked by sexualizing them at young ages to confuse them during their adolecent years.

Hmm - I 'went Galt' over 35 years ago. I divorced my wife of 12 years - and was granted custody of our 4 year old daughter that same day. No easy feat back in those days, I was determined - persistent - even in the face of a lawyer who kept telling me I was 'going against the grain'. I convinced him I was serious and he either needed to get on board with the idea or I'd find another lawyer - he got the message. And a lot of my money. You'd have to know my ex-wife to know why I was so persistent.

Anyway what I found out about women was quite telling. Being a single dad made me quite attractive to many women. But they were interested in me for what I was doing for my daughter - providing for her - and thats what they wanted for their own children - and for her too - a provider. But the most surprising thing I found is women aren't much interested in raising another woman's child! Trust me - the image in books and stories about the step-mother isn't over-done. And why don't you hear much about the mean old step-dad? Because guys for the most part are quite agreeable to raising other men's children as their own. Women? Not so much.

After a few one-way relationships that seemed to be going nowhere but in the direction of the GF I was living with at the time I got tired of playing baby-sitter for their kids (favor seldom returned!) - tired of supplying (paying for) a better car than I was driving for the current GF - tired of making up the bulk of the rent and bills - I decided my daughter and I would live alone. Even after she graduated high school and entered college and moved away from home I continued to live alone. And still do today. What is the worst line I've ever heard a woman say when I ask them why we should live together? "Cause I'm worth it"! Err... no you aren't honey! But nice try! Almost every ex-GF has claimed that same "Cause I'm worth it"!

I've had friends ask me what my Harley Electra Glide cost - my reply "About what a wife would"! I see it in their eyes - they'd love to have a motorcycle but the 'little woman' won't let them. These are the same guys that are 'restricted' to those teeny tiny little home theater speakers cause the wife don't like big speakers (mine are massive!) "in my home". Contrast that with the same guy saying he doesn't deny his wife anything she wishes for (within $$$ reason). And most of these guys can afford a motorcycle - they just can't afford the divorce. To which I say get divorced early on or forget it altogether.

well, women have proven again and again how brilliant they are with all the inventions and scient...what's that? oh.

well women are proving they are mens' equal by not needing any extra rights in the work pla.... oh yeah, sorry, i forgot about that affirmative action thing.

well in government they ... most gov. programs are designed to help women?

wait a minute. does every aspect of life that women are involved in have special privileges? on t.v. they are always portrayed as the smart one. is that a lie? is there any area where women have 'competed' and did well w/o special treatment? oh yeah, spending somebody else's hard earned $$.

Yes I get this and agree but I would go further. It also transfers the production of private sector men to the public sector. We need to go Galt against the whole damn system. I always get a kick out of public service union shills who claim that they want everyone to have what they call "decent wages and benefits". Their union bosses - at least those who know anything about economics - must cringe when they hear such things. Their fat salaries, pensions and benefits for life that they receive for putting relatively worthless things into the common pot are only valuable because the rest of us toil in obscurity and at much lower compensation to provide the real goods and services that they consume.

Two points, re: the media portrayal of men, it is tiresome, women are constantly put in the roles of men at a rate far, far, higher than reality. The classic was an episode of NCIS Los Angeles where the female agent was sparring with a male agent that was a former SEAL and is a large man. Well the didn't show her beating him, but she went toe to toe with him, which of course is ridiculous. Why this need to make a bizarre equality between men and women? As a father of two boys, I constantly here parents trying to equate the physical abilities of girls with boys. Why? It is idiotic and effectively impossible due to hormonal and physical differences. There was a female high school baseball pitcher that got a scholarship to a tiny school, based on her stats (obviously she threw knuckleballs) no boy would make any collegiate team, anywhere. So why was she selected?

Probably 95% of police detectives are men over 40, but you would think 50% were women over 30 if you watch TV.

The second point is part of the problem is the feminizing of men. Manliness used to be, honor, determination, fidelity, diligence, blessing our children. It has become porn, adultery, sloth, alcohol and drugs (not saying it's ever been perfect, just talking percentages).

The ironic thing is that the white male and his Western Culture, warts and all, has done more to advance the cause of individual liberty and equality than any other groups in the history of man kind. Now he's the the bad guy. Look around ladies, there is no other culture where women are men's equals. Islamic? Fat chance. Asian? Only where Western influence has taken root. African? Nope. South American? Again Western cultural influence.

White male children are conditioned to hate themselves in our public schools through a skewed cirruculum, half truths, and outright lies. They are further attacked by sexualizing them at young ages to confuse them during their adolecent years.

Real Deal, I don't think it's usually that blatant. It's like Dr. Smith says, boys are made to feel bad about who they are by the very structure of the school. God bless those teachers that understand and appreciate boys! But there are some that don't, we had one, that called us in telling us how squirrely our son was and asked if he was "slow" (in some many words). I asked if she'd looked at his file (of course she hadn't) and seen that until her class he had straight A's. That awful teacher managed to take a great student and mess him up, simply because he did not fit the girl model of student.

I would have to agree with Real Deal. Have you read any text books lately? Most if not all are now written by raging leftists who can barely contain their hatred of the Founding Fathers, at least in the humanities and social sciences. History textbooks are one big overview of all the sins of the white, male, Christian leaders, and a favorable presentation of those who were their "victims". The authors do not even attempt to hide their extreme bias.

I disagree, its deliberate and blatent. The reason you don't think so is that the process was gradual and you were told things in school, your kids are told even more leftist propaganda, and their kids told even more.

When did your school start teaching sex ed? What grade? Did it include homosexuality as a social norm? Kids are now being taught this stuff as early as 5 or 6 years old in some places. What are they taught about American History? How much are the positive aspects of our nation taught and how much are the negative emphasized? What do they hear about the Founding Fathers? Are they presented as learned forward thinking men who in spite of any flaws should be admired for what they wrought or "rich white slave owners"?

many years ago, on a first date, i was informed by a young divorcee that the only reason she would consider remarriage was for financial security for her children. a few months later she didn't understand why i wasn't interested in marrying her.

I wonder how many young men have gotten vasectomies as a vaccination against child support? How many women who want children are going to have to settle for dubious sperm from sperm banks. "Ayup my cousin Elmo gets beer money from the sperm bank. He claims to be a genius but it took him two tries to graduate from high school. He had to work at failing."

Even most of the 30-and-under males I know are anti-man, and would consider themselves feminists.

The most "dedicated" of them actually believe that there DOES need to be anti-man discrimination in order to acheive pro-woman "justice". They're not concerned about equality, they're concerned about what they see as "justice", which is to see men (aside from themselves, of course) crushed under the heel of oppression so that they "know what it feels like", and so "no woman will ever again feel marginalized or intimidated". It's a weird sexism that they don't even seem to realize that they have.